


Demons at the Door

by atimi (bertee)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-01
Updated: 2010-11-01
Packaged: 2017-10-28 00:08:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/301593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bertee/pseuds/atimi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam and Lucifer have a talk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Demons at the Door

**Author's Note:**

> Snapshot AU from 4.21 where Dean doesn't make it to the convent in time and Ruby plays things a little differently.

When Sam Winchester first laid eyes on the Devil, there was a crucifix to his left and a poker chip in his hand.

From what Ruby had told him, Sam had expected someone more terrifying, more awe-inspiring, and if it hadn't been for the way the chip hung in the air for a second too long on each toss, he wasn't sure he would have recognized him among the group of people that filled the church hall.

However, when Lucifer looked over at him with a calm smile, Sam had no doubt who he was.

The distortion wasn't like it was in ordinary demons, where their sneering, disfigured visage was contained by a seamless mask with only their eyes to give them away. It wasn't the otherworldly difference that the angels possessed either, where they knew they were alien and made no effort to mimic mannerisms or human quirks. Lucifer looked like a man, dressed like a man, smiled like a man, blinked like a man, but he wore the disguise like an ill-fitting suit, the skin of a human pulled over something twisted and grotesque and unwanted.

Sam wondered if he looked the same.

The poker chip dropped into Lucifer's outstretched hand and Sam watched it vanish as he curled the fingers of his vessel into a fist. "Do you have a yes for me, Sam?"

Sam was pretty sure he already knew the answer, given that Ruby was lying in a smoking grave two towns away rather than standing there, ready to offer Sam up as a powerful but obedient vessel. He shook his head anyway and spoke over the noise of the Gamblers Anonymous meeting going on around them, "No. I'm not letting you use me."

Lucifer smiled sadly, the line of his lips slicing lines up his cheeks as Sam watched. "I take it Ruby told you what your responsibilities were?"

"She told me you wanted me as your vessel," Sam replied, full of the same steely anger that had filled him when he'd slit Ruby's throat with her own knife. "She said she'd trained me to help you instead of stop you. She said I was ready to go to you to be possessed."

"And then you killed her."

He sounded pleased, amused even, and Sam glanced behind him to check whether the other occupants of the church had heard the accusation. When he looked back, Lucifer's eyes were gone, only reappearing when Sam flinched and blinked.

"It's a shame," he said calmly. "She was loyal."

"Not to me," Sam said and Lucifer smiled.

"Maybe not from your perspective but she was unique, you know. We tried this with you before, Sam, but it never took. You could never take your eyes off that pathetic, needy brother of yours long enough for anyone to get close to you."

"Don't-"

Lucifer laughed, mouth falling open just a little too wide, as though the hinges on his jaw were loose and rotting. "But then he died, didn't he? And you did so well, Sam. So, so well. You took all the lessons she gave, drank all that blood and made yourself strong for me. Ruby built you from a drunken, grieving waste of potential into the creature that could crack open that final seal and let me walk the earth..." He smirked. "And then you killed her when she finally clued you in on the action. It's almost poetic."

"I'm not going to let you take me," Sam warned, a confusing mix of shame and anger rising up at the thought of Ruby. "I'll fight you."

His hand drifted inward to where Uriel's blade lay in its sheath against his leg but frowned when his thumb brushed denim instead of metal. Lucifer didn't take his eyes off him as he turned the weapon over in his hand, skimming his fingers down the length of it with easy familiarity and looking at him with pity. "This won't work on me, Sam."

Sam tried not to let his frustration show. "I thought you were an angel."

"Technical definition only," Lucifer corrected. "Believe me, Sam, they don't have words for what I am."

The lights in the church flickered and Sam watched the way things seemed to crawl under Lucifer's skin in the split-seconds of darkness.

"I'm going to stop you," he promised as the lights came back on and the murmurs from the group quieted. "I'm not just going to stand by and let you end the world."

"Of course you're not." Lucifer smiled, full of serene confidence. "You're going to help."

"No."

"Why?" he challenged. "What's here for you, Sam? After all that blood, you're not even the same species as the rest of this world. Don't waste your time fighting for cattle who'll turn their back on you for saving their lives. Join me." The skin of his cheek peeled away, exposing raw, bloody flesh that was covered again a split-second later. "Say yes."

"No," Sam said again, louder, and Lucifer eyed him curiously, the blackness of his pupils spilling out into his irises.

"Dean?"

Sam's eyes cut away at the name and when he looked back up, Lucifer's mouth was gaping in a wide gash of a grin. "That's your reason for saying no? You're scared of losing your brother? Newsflash, Sammy," he taunted, sounding too much like Azazel, "you've already lost him."

"No."

His denial was more desperation than conviction this time and he tensed when Lucifer took a step closer, the movement somehow out of synch with his body. "Oh, I'm afraid so, Sam. He's running away like a child right now but the angels are closing in. When they get hold of him..." His irises flickered green, lighting up with the same spark that Sam remembered seeing in Dean's eyes. "He will bow before Heaven and let Michael inside him, even if the angels need to break every bone in his body to get him on his knees."

Sam's reply died on his lips. Fear and rage twisted up inside him, only magnified in the face of Lucifer's relaxed, grotesque smile, and he stepped back, pulling up his defenses and spitting, "Fuck you." The Gamblers Anonymous group looked up at the curse but Sam ignored them and focused on Lucifer as a furious surge crackled through his blood. "That won't work on me. Dean's never going to give in to them and I'm _never_ going to say yes to you."

The salt-soaked wood of the church door did nothing to him when he stormed away and pushed it open. Lucifer's laugh followed behind him, uneven and inhuman, but Sam didn't look back as Lucifer addressed both him and the group in the church with the mocking challenge, "Wanna bet?"


End file.
